With over 4,000 requests seeking Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearances pending, the Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority (KCZMA) is moving towards a digital platform for speedy processing of applications.
Applicants will soon be able to upload their applications directly to the website of the authority or through Akshaya Kendras and local panchayats. The new facility, expected to be up in three months, could speed up the process and applicants can digitally track the status of their applications.
The platform is expected to benefit fishermen and members of coastal-dwelling communities, who have to wait for months together to obtain CRZ clearance for repair and reconstruction of their dwelling units, said Padma Mahanti, member secretary, KCZMA.
The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change has created a new website for Category B projects that covers big residential and commercial projects and applications from ports and other agencies. The website may not be compatible with fishermen and traditional dwellers. Hence the platform.
More than 90% of the applications received by the KCZMA are from fisherfolk, Ms. Mahanthi said.
Clearing of files
The authority has embarked on a drive to clear pending applications with the support of the Department of Science and Technology and Environment and the Directorate of Climate Change.
During the past one and a half months, 1,000 applications had been cleared. By June, another 2,500 applications would be cleared. The authority would also meet twice a month for the clearing pending files, she said.
Status paper
Interestingly, a status paper prepared by the authority on its functioning attributed the pendency to “increase in the number of application due to the awareness created and the absence of the authority for about five months in 2016.”
The “confusion” regarding the shifting of the secretariat of the KCZMA from the Science and Technology Department to the State Environment Department also added to the pendency, it noted.
While the authority could clear only 724 applications in 2014 and 1,427 in 2015, last year it cleared 1,468 applications even though the authority did not function for five months, it said.
The authority anticipates around 6,000 applications during the current year and “only 2,000 applications can be processed in a year with the present arrangements,” the status paper noted.
